Here at DMAC we love Apple gadgets and can’t wait to get our hands on anything Apple are cooking up. So after living off for months off rumors and speculations fueled by fans and insiders, we were more than ready to hear Apple announce a new line of updated hardware, new services and updated OS’s, and they did just that on Sept. 1.

The event, which Apple held in San Francisco was highly anticipated by Apple followers and techies alike and gave Apple a chance to unveil a new line of iPods and much, much more:

iPod touch

The updated iPod touch is now thinner and features Facetime, Apple’s video calling service.

The focus is on video for the iPod touch, with an improved display of 960 x 640 resolution and built-in video editing software and HD video recording. Capture video on the go and post it to your YouTube channel when you connect with a wireless network.

The coolest feature about the iPod touch though was something most people won’t even think about or physically see – the processor. Apple announced the new touch would use the Apple A4 – the same chip that powers the iPhone 4 and the iPad.

Why is Apple’s A4’s mobile ARM processor so important to Apple’s touch? Well, Apple sold 275 million iPods to date, while 1.5 billion games and entertainment apps have been downloaded the the iPod touch. This announcement and the Game Center feature show Apple is very committed to mobile entertainment (and the touch being a big part of that). It should make handheld game makers Nintendo and Sony think seriously about Apple’s iPods (if they haven’t already) as an heir to their respective DS and PS handheld thrones.

iPod nano

iPod nano’s also got a slick new design and touch screen.

The nano was updated along with the shuffle. The new nano 8GB sells for $149 and the 16GB sells for $179. While the nano has always been cool, the new design and touchscreen really make the device shine.

Apple TV

Use your iPhone as a remote control with Apple TV.

As more consumers move to online or streaming services to get their media, Apple took the chance to revamp their existing Apple TV service. The tiny black box now sells for $99 and supports Netflix streaming. Users can also rent HD movies starting at $3.99 and TV shows form the Apple TV media library for 99 cents. The device also now sports HDMI and optical outputs.

PING

Now you’ll know when Lady GaGa buys that Monkey’s Greatest Hits album.

Apple’s new social music network Ping is integrated into iTunes 10 and it allows you to follow artists and your friends, like Facebook.

IOS 4.1

Apple also announced it’s releasing the eagerly awaited iOS update 4.1 for the iPhone. The update will fix the bugs many users have been experiencing with the last iPhone software update – proximity sensors, sluggish performance, Bluetooth – but also adds new features for the iPhone as well:

- HDR Photos - Apple has added an HDR photography feature to the iPhone’s camera in iOS 4.1 which lets you easily create HDR images. High Dynamic Range Photos combine three exposures to create a single image with a greater amount of detail in the highlights and shadows.

- WiFi HD Video Upload – Now iPhone users can upload HD video from their iPhone without an app using Wi-Fi.

- TV Show Rentals – TV shows have always been available for purchase in iOS devices, but now you can rent them to save a little money and storage space on your device.

- Game Center – Like Microsoft’s XBOX Live, Apple’s Game Center (available soon via the App Store) lets you play friends, inviting them to games, or be matched with other players when your friends aren’t available.

iPad

Apple is also bringing the iOS 4 features to the iPad in November. That includes features like app folders and multitasking, here’s what iPad users can look forward to:

- Wireless Printing. A few third party apps offer the feature but Apple is building print functionality into the iOS itself. The Print Center can be accessed from the multitask drawer and will allow users to choose printers and manage printing wirelessly from the iPad.

- AirPlay. Wireless streaming lets you stream audio, video and photos over a Wi-Fi connection. Along with the new Apple TV you can shift stream between devices, so you could start a movie on you desktop Mac and finish it on your iPad.

And of course all these great devices are compatible with Apple’s current top of the line gear – like iMacs and Macbook Pros. Are you looking for a great deal on Apple hardware? Then check out DMA’s Apple Hardware & Sony Gear Special.

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“How can I make this UFO shoot laser-beams and then explode?”

The question may sound a bit strange, but for Devon Conradson of Los Almos, NM it’s a question that’s pretty common for people in the career he’s exploring – Creating Hollywood Visual Effects. Everyone needs to start somewhere, Devon started with a passion for science fiction movies and with a little inspiration from his family. And Devon’s seen first hand the real possibility of working in the movie business – you see, he also has a cousin who worked on the recent box office hit, Toy Story 3.

Devon’s just spent the past week learning how to create visual effects for the movies like the big timers in Hollywood. And now Devon’s creative ideas are now turning into real life graphics like those in Hollywood blockbusters.

But right now he’s trying to figure out how to make a UFO blow up.

“We get all the hands on time in class, so you can take something you’ve learned and apply it right away.”

Currently, most Hollywood movies rely on the use of green screens to manipulate backgrounds and replace the “green screen” with other pieces of video and effects to create entirely new environments. This is exactly what Devon did. Using a program called Adobe After Effects, one of the industry’s leading visual effects programs Devon took images from various resources and created a layout of objects, backgrounds and text. This “composite” was used with other “assets” to create an entirely new film. Check it out:

At the Mini-Film Festival at the end of the week, Devon shows off his destructive side, the rest of the class watches as a UFO is destroyed. It’s met with laughs and applause by fellow classmates, parents, and instructors. After a 5-day class learning the inside of Hollywood Visual Effects at Digital Media Academy, Devon’s learned how to blow up a UFO. “I had a lot of fun. The week flew by so fast – I don’t want to go home. But that’s ok, I plan on coming back next year and continue to pursue a career in visual effects.”

Digital Media Academy’s 2010 summer courses run from July 21st to August 6th. Learn more about DMA’s courses a here.

If you’re a kid and have always wanted to make video games, now’s your chance to become a video game designer – and win awesome prizes to boot!

Design a level for Little Big Planet and you could with big!

For the third year in a row, the HASTAC Organization in conjunction with the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation have organized the Digital Media and Learning Competition. The annual 2 million dollar event challenges designers, entrepreneurs, researchers, and young people to put their ideas and learning to work to invent the 21st century.

This year HASTAC has partnered with Sony and Electronic Arts for GAMECHANGERS. This competition is open to kids who love video games and creating. There are two great competitions you can be a part of:

Little Big Planet
Prove you’re the best Little Big Planet level designer! Create a Little Big Planet level using the level creation tools in game on PS3. You can create a level by yourself or with a team of friends and you could win a Sony PSP and PSP game! Enter the Little Big Planet competition here.

Spore Galactic Adventures
Prove you’re the best Spore Galaxy creator! Create a Spore Galaxy adventure by yourself or with a team of friends for a chance to win a visit to Electronic Arts, the home of Spore! Winners get a fully paid visit to EA, plus a chance to meet a real EA game designer! Enter the Spore Galaxy competition here.

Winners must be under 18, and will be selected based on creativity and playability. But hurry, the competitions end August 31, 2010. What are you waiting for – enter now and good luck!

Want to learn more about video game design? Check out Digital Media Academy’s Video Game Design Courses.

Ian Petrarca sits in a producers chair on the campus of Stanford, a thumping hip hop beat is coming through his headphones. As the music plays he follows along with the audio track on a massive Apple computer screen.

For the past week Ian, who came all the way from New York to pursue his dream of becoming a professional audio producer and composer, has been learning the techniques producers like Pharrell and will.i.am use to create number one hits for artist like Kanye West.

“I came into this class expecting to learn a lot about the advanced recording techniques and multi-track capabilities of Logic Pro. I definitely did learn all that. But I also got to explore what I was really interested in – I learned how to sample and how to use samples to make a song.”

A music fan since an early age, Ian always wondered how the big music producers did it, so he enrolled in a Digital Audio & Music Production class at Digital Media Academy’s Stanford Campus. “We give students all the skills to make themselves a music or video producer.” Tyler Winick is an instructor for Digital Media Academy, “Ian took these techniques and made an incredibly good song.”

“(DMA) taught me how to properly mix the track down. I’m definitely glad I took the course. Everything I learned I can now take home to work on making more music.” Ian was a quick learner, within the second day of the week long course he was already creating his first sampled beats and well on the way to making a hit song.

Ian clicks the screen and continues work on Get That. Now taking pieces from one of his favorite tracks, The Isley Brothers “Voyage to Atlantis” he creates a backing track. “Tyler suggested I bring up the boom of the kick drum.” Ian says as he continues piecing together the song. He adds an acapella version of Jay-Z’s “Dirt Off Your Shoulder” for vocals and finally, Ian builds the song’s chorus using “mashup DJ sounds” that he created – and he’s done all of it with Logic 9’s software.

Ian in the studio working on “Get That.”

At the end of the week, Ian’s dream are more in reach than every before. His song debuts to the rest of the class and it’s met with with strong applause, both fellow classmates and his instructor are very impressed. “Get That” is a hit. As the class wraps up for the week, Ian shares his future plans with his instructor, “I plan to become a professional producer and I’ll definitely benefit from what I learned this week.”

Logic 9 is the industry standard in music production. Digital Media Academy’s 2010 summer courses at Stanford run from July 21st to August 6th. Learn more about DMA’s courses a here. Listen to Get That.

Let’s take a look at the iPhone 4, from the inside. No, really we mean from the inside of the actual iPhone. This stop-motion video was produced (in a dust free room no less) by our friends at TechRestore and it shows the iPhone 4 being disassembled, piece by  piece, screw by microscopic screw. And just because the guys at TechRestore can, they reassemble it back into a perfect working state:

Ok, so while watching that, we realize how cool the iPhone 4 and stop-motion animation are. And while you probably don’t want to take apart your iPhone 4, you might want to shoot your own stop-motion video. Stop-motion is a old school film animation technique that is still as amazing as was years ago. Check out this awesome stop-motion video shot by Annie Lynch at Digital Media Academy summer film camp in Chicago, she made her film by using high quality photos and piecing the .jpgs together in Final Cut Pro:

Another famous stop-motion filmmaker? Ray Harryhausen. Long before George Lucas was using stop-motion in movies like Star Wars, Ray was using stop-motion to create amazing science fiction scenes like this skeleton battle in Jason and the Argonauts:

Interested in learning more about stop-motion animation? Check out DMA’s Adventures in Filmmaking.

You’ve got a great idea for a website and a domain name, now it’s time to share your vision with the world! But hold on, before you start building a website it’s a good idea to make sure you have the basics covered. Don’t worry, DMA Central is here to help.

Meet Sandy Novak a DMA Central contributor and Digital Media Academy instructor who will be teaching Advanced Web Design Techniques Courses this summer for DMA, Sandy’s got 10 Pro Tips For Making A Great Website:

1. Make a Wireframe First. Before you start pushing pixels around in Photoshop it’s a good idea to make a wireframe. A wireframe is the skeleton, or basic design of your website. Draw one on a piece of paper or with a simple design program using plain boxes and use placement text to determine where things will be placed on your web page.

This site, created by a former DMA student, uses parchment background and simple design to promote a Civil War Encyclopedia. Also note the navigation tabs at the bottom of the page.

2. Color is Important. The color of your web site sends a strong message.  Want to be bold? Use Red. But before settling on a color combination, search the web and see what works well and what doesn’t. Some colors are more suitable than others. For example, you might use a light blue or green for a site about camping, or use black or silver for a site about cars.

3. Saving Your Images. When saving images as .jpgs in Photoshop always use the “Save for Web & Devices” option. This will create the smallest, cleanest web-ready art for your site.

4. Avoid Legal Issues, Grab Some Stock Photos. Need a few images to decorate your site? Unless you take a picture yourself or have rights to use an photo or image by the owner you should invest a few dollars in high-quality stock photography. These photos can be as low as $5 each and by using them you can avoid violating any copyright laws.

5. Create Some Style. Before you begin building your home page,  Remember the wireframe? Digitally build it now and create a styleguide page in a program like Dreamweaver. Work out all the CSS details of the design using dummy text and images. Save all your styleguides for future web projects.

6. Keep It Simple. Don’t get seduced by complicated design options. Master two or three solid layouts and add excitement to the page with high quality Photoshop work.

7. Use Page Navigation. Place consistent navigation (buttons and cues users can get back to previous pages or to other places on your site) on every page and always include a home page button.

8. Next Gen is In! Flashy effects and chunky beveled buttons are so 1990’s. Clean and simple is in.

9. With or Without Flash? Unless your site really demands it, use Flash sparingly. Why? Flash won’t work on the iPhone and can cause other troublesome technical hurdles, especially for beginners. Instead, I suggest building your site in HTML and if you must use Flash, insert smaller SWF files to add motion and interest.

10. Testing! Testing! Test your site in several browsers, Google Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer AND on both the Windows and Mac platforms. Your site won’t look the same in every browser, but if the pages hold together nicely and appear readable you can consider yourself successful.

Are you interested in learning more about making a great website? Adult learners, Digital Media Academy offers a four course Web Design and Certification Program.  These courses can be taken one at a time over a several year period, or consecutively in one summer and will give you all the skills you need to be a certified web slinger.

Pixar have been turning out blockbusters for years, but how do they do it? How do they manage to make every film a hit? When the people of Pixar sit down to plan their next film, it’s an incredibly creative process that involves several steps. Not unlike how Digital Media Academy’s students plan a film project, Pixar’s process includes brainstorming, developing a script and then actually shooting the action.

This summer the studio released Toy Story 3. To bring the film to life it took hundreds of creators and even more ideas, in addition to the countless hours of hard work. Recently Wired magazine visited Pixar and provided an incredible look behind the scenes at the magic.

We’re can’t wait for Toy Story 3! How about you? What’s your favorite Disney/Pixar film? What did you think of the Wired magazine article?

Every year video game makers gather in Los Angeles for the Electronic Entertainment Expo. Also known as E3, the video game trade show gives game buyers a chance to take a sneak peek at what’s in development. We visited the show in search of future video game stars for DMAC’s future video game creators.

Ezio & the Brotherhood

In Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, the sequel to the amazing and critically acclaimed single-player game Assassin’s Creed, our hero, Ezio, travels to Rome to take down corrupt leaders. This time though, Ezio is supported in his efforts by the Brotherhood, a shady bunch of characters that help him through the single player and new multiplayer mode.

Players will have access to different weapons and attack techniques when the game releases in November 2010, but it’s the shadowy characters of Ezio and the Brotherhood that players are really excited about stepping into the shoes of.

Ezio’s cloaked hood hides his face, adding to the character’s intrigue, likewise for the other characters in Brotherhood, their animations and character designs give each one unique personality and almost overshadow this incredible game.

Epic Mickey

What do you get when you take an 80-year old mouse and give him a facelift by one of the most respected game designers in the video game business? You get Epic Mickey, a new game from Disney Interactive and the brain of Warren Spector, who is known for such games as Wing Commander and Deus Ex.

Click this image for a larger view of Mickey's strange world.

Epic Mickey has its own unique character and style. Epic Mickey takes classic Mickey and turns him upside down in a platform game world oozing with Disney style and character. Not since Square’s line of Kingdom Hearts games have we seen such an untraditional – and cool – way to represent Disney characters. Speaking of character, the game will also be the first video game to ever feature Disney’s long-lost Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, a character that came before Mickey and one that Walt Disney sold the rights to earlier in his career.

The People of Rage

Rage is from id Software (of Doom and Quake fame) and uses the company’s unique id Tech 5 technology. This technology allows programmers to “bring a new level of graphic presentation and artistic expression and graphic fidelity.” All we know is that the game and its world pushes the limits of what we’ve seen in video games. Reactions to the demo and trailer was jaw-dropping awe, even to industry veterans.

Rage was the big winner at E3 and the pick of many video game editors as the best of the show.

The post-apocalyptic Mad-Max-inspired world is incredibly detailed, crafted almost, not just designed. The down and dirty environments and characters are so well made they’re almost human. That includes the zombies challenge players to high-octane battles and racing, in the outskirts of the protected city the action is centered around. Oh yeah, it all plays like a top-notch first-person shooter.

Are there any games or characters you heard about from E3 that you’re eager to get your hands on? What video game character are you creating this summer?

Nowadays most of the media your iBalls watch are on an iSomething. This is all great and grand, but how did my iMedia find it’s iWay to the iWorld?

I would love to tell you that I don’t know and just leave the magic in it. But since telling my sister at the age of seven that Santa didn’t exist, I’ve always been one for iTruth, regardless of how disappointing it may be for others. If you use an iPod or other Apple device then you should click this link to check out a video tutorial on how to compress for iPods and iTunes.

I get to rub shoulders with some pretty talented and amazing technical instructors. Once in awhile these same instructors come to me for my thoughts, and I get to do what I do best, which is to think of how on earth people use the internet to find what they’re looking for.  I take that info and share it with the authors, so they can write technical copy to be reachable by those people.  I don’t write the articles here, I take the written articles and insert them into the blog with pictures and videos. I add categories and tags, keywords, and I brainstorm about why kids want to come to summer camp – what are the needs that can be met and exceeded by our training and summer camps for kids, teens and adults and how Digital Media Academy’s training and summer camps can help people meet their goals.  I try to make sure those important ideas and words are included. And it all ties in together – DMA has terrific professional instructors and camps are set on amazing university locations for our summer camps (Stanford, UCLA, UC San Diego, University of British Columbia at Vancouver, University of Chicago, Drexel, Swarthmore, Brown, George Washington University Washington, DC, Harvard, University of Texas at Austin.) We just need to present the information in a way that is interesting, original, and findable. Findable being key!

Our campers love to post their videos on YouTube, what words do they need to use to be found and viewed? If I were a teen with a dream to make an amazing film and change the world, where would I start? I’d probably search the internet for amazing films that are already changing the world, and work backward from there to learn where to go to learn how to make an amazing video! Digital Media Academy teaches a wide variety of courses, some of which teach kids to make amazing films at film summer camp.

As I was writing a pretty dry document for our instructors to use this year, the nuts and bolts of posting student videos to YouTube, I was trying to think of a great example of a “viral video” – the holy grail of “viral” and how to achieve that goal.  And I remembered that I had used a great video as and example in a “surprise and delight your customer” post…  shown here.  (And you can also check out another amazing viral video:  educate girls)

If I were the original creator of this video, and if I had made it during summer camp, I’d post it with tags like this:  “Digital Media Academy Summer Camp”, “Film Summer Camp”, “Make a Film”, “Teen Summer Camp” and so on.  To view it on the blog here, post it, click on “embed”, select the viewer color box you like, and select size 560 X 340, and paste it in the post in “Html” view.

Enjoy the video!

I’m going to illustrate a few things simultaneously here, so bear with me as it all weaves together with this one incredible viral film!

Tips for Posting Your Summer Camp Videos to YouTube

• Categories – YouTube has several categories that are appropriate for summer camp videos – check out the categories by clicking on the “browse” tab next to the search box.
• Think about your video – if your video is the answer, what was the question?  If the question is “I want to watch something funny”, and your video is funny, consider placing it in the “Comedy” category.  If it’s a technical film about how to create something using a certain technology, consider “Education”, “HowTo”, “Science & Technology”, or “Gaming”.
• Post your video and select your tags.  Tags help people find the video.  If the film is made by the Digital Media Academy staff or a student, use “Digital Media Academy” as one of the tags.  If it’s made by kids at summer camps, or if this film would help kids looking for a film summer camp see what happens behind the scenes at film summer camp, use “film summer camp” as a tag.  If the camp is about “skateboard summer camp” or “academy for game design” use those words in the tags.  Whatever the title of the summer camp is, that would make a good tag.  Use all of the available tags.
• Write a brief description of the video, mentioning the name of the summer camp, the location of the summer camp, the age group, and what made it special.  Include a link to the page on the Digital Media Academy website that displays either the course name of the summer camp, or the location of the program.

I’d love to see all the videos made by students and staff this summer at Digital Media Academy!

This film was made by Keith English, acclaimed artist, animator and instructor for the Digital Media Academy. He created the animations for this promo for the Sonoma International Film Festival.

Kids, post your videos, and leave a comment on this post.  Wouldn’t it be fun to have a contest for the funniest video?  Please let me know (especially!) if you post a video to the comedy category!

Check out Digital Media Academy’s videos on YouTube! Have a blast at summer camp!